KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lorenzo Cain did not fall back of the time-honored cliché of wanting to break his Most Valuable Player trophy into 25 pieces and giving one to each of his teammates.

Yet the Royals center fielder could have made that statement and none of those who watched Kansas City sweep the Baltimore Orioles in four games of the American League Championship Series would have rolled their eyes.

While Cain was a deserving choice by going went 8-for-15 (.533) with two doubles and a number of outstanding catches, a number of Royals could have walked away with the MVP award after the Royals edged the Orioles 2-1 in Game 4 on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium.

"The starting pitching was phenomenal," manager Ned Yost said. "The bullpen was unbelievable with (Kelvin) Herrera, (Wade) Davis, Greg Holland. We had clutch hits by just about everybody up and down the lineup. (Mike) Moustakas had a phenomenal series. (Eric Hosmer) had a phenomenal series. Lorenzo Cain, phenomenal. Salvador (Perez) did a great job of handling the pitching staff.

"It was just a whole team effort."

Indeed, it was.

Left fielder Alex Gordon drove in five runs and Moustakas, the third baseman, hit a pair of home runs and made the catch of the series in Game 3 when he snared a pop foul by Adam Jones while falling into the VIP field boxes along the third-base line that were constructed especially for the postseason.

Holland got the save in all four games while Davis pitched five scoreless innings and Herrera didn't allow a run in 5 2/3 innings.

"A lot of guys stepped up," Cain said. "Any of those guys stepped up and were definitely deserving (of being MVP). Luckily, I got it."

Even though Cain went 0-for-3 on Wednesday in the clincher, he played a hand in the Royals' two-run first inning with a sacrifice bunt after Alcides Escobar led off with a single and Nori Aoki was hit by a pitch.

After Cain advanced the runners --- and set off yet another anti-Yost flurry on Twitter because of the manager's fondness for bunting --- they both scored when Eric Hosmer hit a chopper to first baseman Steve Pearce but Escobar kicked the ball out of rookie catcher Caleb Joseph's mitt as he slid into home plate.

"I'm just trying to do whatever it takes to find a way to help this team win ballgames," Cain said. "I'm just going to continue to do that throughout the World Series, as well."